How can you transform your Social Media profile into a real business card? How much does your online presence matter? To what extent do recruiters use Social Media to attract more candidates?
Recent studies (Jobvite Social Recruiting Survey) show that Social Media can often simplify recruiters’ work, especially for digital communication jobs, online activity providing additional information. This doesn’t mean that in the recruitment process, Social Media becomes a discriminatory criteria, but only a complementary tool to classic ones.
Here are 10 tips to improve your Social Media presence:
1/ Your profile matters more than ever. Make sure employers don’t confuse your profile with another candidate. Include in your resume links to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter.
2/ Grammar mistakes can cost your more than a profile full of selfies. Your Facebook posts and shares say a lot about your personality, your hobbies, passions and goals. We recommend you talking about professional memberships, volunteering, attending events. In the eyes of the employers, grammar mistakes are charged more expensive than injuries, so, before posting something on your profile, make sure is double-checked.
3/ Increase your chances of being hired: Ask for a recommendation! Use Social Media to get recommandations from those you have worked with, be it a previous job, an internship or a volunteer program.
4/ Work constantly on your personal brand. Social Media cand be both your friend and your enemy. The good part is that you can control this to your advantage by developing your personal brand – an online image that can impress any employer and make him want to know more about you even in offline.
5/ Next time when you post on Facebook…think if it’s something that represents your and it’s in accordance wih your personality and your professional goals.
6/ Help employers find you. Optimize your LinkedIn profile and provide them with all the information they need:
- Headline referring to your specialization and including keywords that employers use;
- Summary – probably the most important and most viewed section. Here you can be creative and play with your description to be as attractive as possible. Write about your experience, about your passions and achievements.
- Your experience should emphasize your skills and qualifications in coherent and easy-to-follow way. It’s not important how much your write, but what you write. Be brief and focus on the main responsibilities.
- The interests you publish can tell a lot about you. Your passions, your hobbies can convey more than you imagine. Just think that employers want candidates with personality, who are able to integrate into a team.
7/ Google yourself. Depending on how detailed and complete your resume is, but also the type of the job, some employers use search engines to get additional information. What does Google say about you? 😊
8/ Who do you know? Just as in offline, the more connected you are in the field in which you work, the more you increase your chances of getting noticed and of being aware of the trends of your industry.
9/ Use your real name as username. Just as with LinkedIn, employers need your help to find you and to have access to information about your professional activity. Try using your real name so you can easily be identified online.
10/ First impression counts. We recommend you to use a profile picture to express your professional background and be representative for the job you want.
Whether or not you are actively seeking a job, you need to manage your online presence. Take time to set up your Facebook page and your LinkedIn profile so you can highlight your skills and experience, the projects you’ve been involved with and any other achievements.
